Buoysel
Trust me, I'm a Professional*
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- Seen Aug 4, 2015
*kicks thread*
Oh god, procrastination is setting in! Brace for nothingness!
Oh god, procrastination is setting in! Brace for nothingness!
Fanfiction of the Year Discussion Committee 2010
- Thread starter Miz en Scène
- Start date
Miz en Scène
Everybody's connected
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- The Wired
- Seen Apr 19, 2024
No, I mean when I want to see if someone's active or not, I usually go through three things. I check their last visited date. If they're invisible I check their last post or VM. And finally, I check their last blog entry (if they have one) to see if they've posted anything that might relate to their absence. And basically, that's how I find out if people are inactive. Of course, they might've posted in some thread to notify everyone of them leaving and that can be taken into account too. Yes, there is a chance some won't be able to be contacted anymore… As I've said, it'll need some work…
Yeah, I suppose you're right. I for one, am wondering if it's somehow possible to integrate a database system into PC without any hardcoding. Aside from that, we could have one thread where we have the nominated fics (locked except for editing) and we could have a few volunteers for the three or four main categories that we can use to receive PM's for their section. Much more cleaner than multiple threads IMO. Then, if the PM's are still too much, we could just revert to the classic method of voting in one thread and having one person sift through all the clutter. An idea I'm not so keen on…
Surprisingly enough, I've been on a few other forums before this, but I'd rather not say since I use my real name there… Basically that, and my experiences IRL where this kind of thing happens because you're friends with X and vote for X. Yes actually, yes it would… Either way, you can't really avoid cheating without a little extra work(i.e. the screening process). Since I'll try to be less paranoid and stop thinking of the WCS, I'll put the screening process on hold for now. I have faith that the community here is less bias.
When I say badly written fics, I'm referring to those with cliché plots and less-than-superb grammar, but aren't that bad as to warrant a locked thread. And yet, some people find them good. I'm not naming any…
Damn. ;_;
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Or ask the great Astinus. I can see invisible people...on the forums, I mean.
I feel like I've just been volunteered for something.
I mean, I agree. Completely.
Will read through posts that were apparently posted by posters when I wasn't looking when I get home. I'm so behind.
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JX Valentine
Your aquatic overlord
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I'm probably going to regret this later, but I might as well make good on the promise I made in my sig.
Anyway, curiosity speaking, but how exactly is nomination and voting going to work when half the people in this thread haven't actually been active reviewers in awhile and half the fics in the main forum are full of plot holes, generic plots, Sues, and abuse to the English language? Granted, you said we'd go back in time and look at fics that are beyond the conventional yearly cut-off date (which means goodfic would actually be included), but what about next year (assuming you don't go with the three-year plan... which would be rather inconvenient because it's just an invitation to forget about this completely in the interim)? It's already the end of March, and I have to say I can only see a handful of fics that might deserve potential nominations for next year's competition. All of them are by FFL regulars, which doesn't exactly promote a community atmosphere. (Hello, concept of cliques.)
The reason why this works on Serebii is exactly because:
1. Fics are higher in general quality. Generally speaking, at least.
2. The reason why #1 is true (and as a second reason in general for why this works) is because there's a higher count of vet members, vet writers, and generally people who know what they're doing reviewing.
Hence, you end up rewarding good fic for being good fic, rather than resorting to rewarding average fic (that could have been improved if someone came along and reviewed the crap out of it) for being the next best thing to good.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying you should outright stop trying to plan for an awards ceremony. I'm saying that if you want an awards ceremony, you should probably make sure the community is ready for one first. For example, when this actually gets somebody to participate in it, then maybe you might be ready. Maybe. Point is, you need reviewers out there, actually reviewing fics and helping authors instead of spamming up the FFL or twiddling their thumbs in planning this. You need average fic quality to go up, and you really need an increase of general participation of quality reviewers (read: people who don't post just one-liners and people who take the time to really get in there and look at a fic) who can make insightful decisions about who should be nominated -- and, more importantly, who should win each category. Until you have both, you've got a parody of what Serebii's trying to do, sorry to say.
Incidentally, I'm assuming some of you are saying, "But there are active quality reviewers around here!" The answer I have to that is no, you really don't. If I can look on the first page of this forum and find only a handful of detailed reviews written in the past month, this community is lacking in them. Sorry to say, but yes. (As a note, I acknowledge that people are busy. However, considering you're proposing an awards ceremony, a good reader/reviewer base is just something you need to have, one way or another. I'm not proposing that the people bogged down with real life should go out and review. I'm proposing that someone do it. Specifically a group consisting of more than three to five people.)
Now, you might be thinking that this kind of thing would actually encourage people to put out quality stuff and review it. The reality is no. No, it won't. The reason why is because you're not defining what is and isn't quality through this exercise. You're just offering coveted titles in a certain deadline, so kids will be more inclined to put out as much so-called quality work in a short period of time. As in, they slap together their best ideas and come out with mediocre work because they're rushing to make it for the deadline or to flood the section with their name so they might be able to win something. So, yeah, building this before encouraging people to review and establish/enforce a standard of quality in this community is just inviting more badfic, not more goodfic.
Meanwhile, we've established the fact that some of you seem to like not reviewing, despite efforts being made to encourage you to actually review, so I look at the idea of this exercise serving as an incentive for people to go back and review nominees with extreme skepticism.
tl;dr: You can propose categories and nomination/voting systems all you want, but you'll want to take care of some fundamental problems with the community before you even try to march forward. Otherwise, no matter how well you plan this out, you won't have much of a selection the next time you do this. =|
Anyway, curiosity speaking, but how exactly is nomination and voting going to work when half the people in this thread haven't actually been active reviewers in awhile and half the fics in the main forum are full of plot holes, generic plots, Sues, and abuse to the English language? Granted, you said we'd go back in time and look at fics that are beyond the conventional yearly cut-off date (which means goodfic would actually be included), but what about next year (assuming you don't go with the three-year plan... which would be rather inconvenient because it's just an invitation to forget about this completely in the interim)? It's already the end of March, and I have to say I can only see a handful of fics that might deserve potential nominations for next year's competition. All of them are by FFL regulars, which doesn't exactly promote a community atmosphere. (Hello, concept of cliques.)
The reason why this works on Serebii is exactly because:
1. Fics are higher in general quality. Generally speaking, at least.
2. The reason why #1 is true (and as a second reason in general for why this works) is because there's a higher count of vet members, vet writers, and generally people who know what they're doing reviewing.
Hence, you end up rewarding good fic for being good fic, rather than resorting to rewarding average fic (that could have been improved if someone came along and reviewed the crap out of it) for being the next best thing to good.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying you should outright stop trying to plan for an awards ceremony. I'm saying that if you want an awards ceremony, you should probably make sure the community is ready for one first. For example, when this actually gets somebody to participate in it, then maybe you might be ready. Maybe. Point is, you need reviewers out there, actually reviewing fics and helping authors instead of spamming up the FFL or twiddling their thumbs in planning this. You need average fic quality to go up, and you really need an increase of general participation of quality reviewers (read: people who don't post just one-liners and people who take the time to really get in there and look at a fic) who can make insightful decisions about who should be nominated -- and, more importantly, who should win each category. Until you have both, you've got a parody of what Serebii's trying to do, sorry to say.
Incidentally, I'm assuming some of you are saying, "But there are active quality reviewers around here!" The answer I have to that is no, you really don't. If I can look on the first page of this forum and find only a handful of detailed reviews written in the past month, this community is lacking in them. Sorry to say, but yes. (As a note, I acknowledge that people are busy. However, considering you're proposing an awards ceremony, a good reader/reviewer base is just something you need to have, one way or another. I'm not proposing that the people bogged down with real life should go out and review. I'm proposing that someone do it. Specifically a group consisting of more than three to five people.)
Now, you might be thinking that this kind of thing would actually encourage people to put out quality stuff and review it. The reality is no. No, it won't. The reason why is because you're not defining what is and isn't quality through this exercise. You're just offering coveted titles in a certain deadline, so kids will be more inclined to put out as much so-called quality work in a short period of time. As in, they slap together their best ideas and come out with mediocre work because they're rushing to make it for the deadline or to flood the section with their name so they might be able to win something. So, yeah, building this before encouraging people to review and establish/enforce a standard of quality in this community is just inviting more badfic, not more goodfic.
Meanwhile, we've established the fact that some of you seem to like not reviewing, despite efforts being made to encourage you to actually review, so I look at the idea of this exercise serving as an incentive for people to go back and review nominees with extreme skepticism.
tl;dr: You can propose categories and nomination/voting systems all you want, but you'll want to take care of some fundamental problems with the community before you even try to march forward. Otherwise, no matter how well you plan this out, you won't have much of a selection the next time you do this. =|
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Yusshin
♪ Yggdrasil ♪
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- Seen May 13, 2013
I do wonder: a judge has to be pretty talented him/herself, which means the best reviewers overall. As said, there's not many detailed reviewers, other than the active Beta Readers.
Yet, what if the best reviewers who become judges have a fanfiction they wrote that they want to nominate? How would that work?
Yet, what if the best reviewers who become judges have a fanfiction they wrote that they want to nominate? How would that work?